The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Wright reposes faith in Indian batsmen

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Saturday, Oct 02, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Wright reposes faith in Indian batsmen

By Our Sports Reporter

Indian coach John Wright and chairman of selectors Kiran More at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore.

BANGALORE, OCT. 1. Coach John Wright reiterated his faith in India's batting strength despite its recent poor run in the one-dayers. "I have enormous belief and trust in our batting line-up. I have seen these batsmen perform for the last couple of seasons and they are world class. We have around seven to eight good batsmen," Wright said after India Seniors defeated India `A' in a practise match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Friday.

Wright also expressed optimism over the centuries scored by Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh in the practise match. "I am pleased with the way the match progressed. Eventually the Seniors came back and won the game and that is what matters. I am happy that Sehwag and Yuvraj spent a lot of time in the middle and scored those runs.

"Actually we needed a long, hard four-day match especially after all the one-dayers we played recently. I am also happy that the fringe players also answered a few questions. It was good to see guys like Sriram, Dheeraj Jadhav and Kaif do exceedingly well," Wright said.

Wright did not name the opening combination for the Tests against Australia but dropped broad hints of a probable pair-up between Sehwag and Aakash Chopra. "We have two boys who have done exceedingly well for us in the series in Australia and Pakistan and I think opening is well organised for us," he said.

On Sachin Tendulkar, Wright said, "Andrew Leipus is in touch with Sachin and we have to assess him. But more than that we should ensure that he receives consistent and constant treatment for his injury."

Wright agreed that the team had let the momentum slip in the recent one-day tournaments but stressed that the players were keen to get into Test mould and excel against Australia. "We have had a couple of good Test series' in recent times and the players are keen to continue that. We are the only side that has won a series and then drawn a series against Australia, the No. 1 side. We know that Australia is hungry for a victory here but we are playing at home, the conditions suit us and we have a fine record against it. We respect it and it will be an exciting series," Wright said.

On Ajit Agarkar's selection and Ashish Nehra's omission, Wright said, "I don't want to get into the specifics as it is the job of the selectors to answer that but all I can say is that Agarkar has a very good record against the Aussies and he was selected. As for Ashish, well he has done well for us but in every selection a few players get unlucky and they miss out."

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